Posted by Sheshisown on March 16, 2008 at 14:58:26:
In Reply to: Re: Ah Raptor... posted by Rx on March 15, 2008 at 19:07:51:
Thank you Kelly,
I expect to read your prose aloud in my creative writing class this Tuesday evening, we are sharing personally selected poetry; also perhaps I will share it with a few young ladies, as the Lord leads at school. Your pens greatest value is in what our Lord may make of it, may He use your prose to call and convict, and to rapture the hearts *waiting* to hear it.
My bible study group is studying Esther; the Lord was showing me that she waited on His timing. In chapter 5 the king asks her twice to ask him for whatever she desired up to half his kingdom.
"So Esther drew near,
and touched the top of the sceptre.
Then said the king unto her,
What wilt thou,
queen Esther?
and what [is] thy request?
it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom."
"And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine,
What [is] thy petition?
and it shall be granted thee: and what [is] thy request?
even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed."
Yet each time she waits, not willing to divulge the deep concerns and fears of her heart for her people and herself, until it is TIME.
Personally, the application went down a different path than what I am used to seeing in this scripture. Daily as I seek the Lord, and ask Him, he fills me with His Spirit and I have the power to act in His perfect will, really on His behalf, in prayer, in words and deeds and attitudes (Here is the power of the King). However, I do not yet, have His authority. His timing IS HIS authority.
Your good admonishment has been similar to me brother, sow and water faithfully, and wait on the Lord to do the work. There is indeed a time to be still and trust Him for the preparation of hearts. To sow and water without evident fruit, to learn to wait for the time to speak, to preach, to invite. The Lord has not promised that I would see the fruit He is working in the lives of the unsaved I pray for. He will move in the hearts I commit into His hands, He will save and deliver, He will heal and restore, He will strengthen and empower . . . IN HIS TIME, AND according to His will.
The amazing part of this story (that I have never really wanted to see before) is that God was working the full hardening and destruction of Haman, as He worked the salvation of His people. Haman was a man, we do not like him because he is so like the antichrist, but he is a human being, even now in Hades suffering only the beginning of eternal torment. Noah and his family were lifted in the arc of safety as the condemned world drowned. Lot and his family were snatched out of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah prepared to feel the heat of God’s wrath. Therefore, to some my fragrance of Christ may be a stench, yet to others it may be sweet.
In all let me walk humbly before my God. Not my will, but His will be done. . .not my time, but His time be accomplished. For God alone is Just.
Praise the Lord for your confirming words, I thank our God for your faith*fullness Kelly.
In the blood&life of Christ. bonnie